On Monday, January 18th, Dwight-Englewood School hosted an all-school virtual community gathering to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy of service. Although the day’s activities may have looked different as we met virtually rather than in person, we were still able to connect and launch into service projects and workshops. The afternoon began with an engaging panel of activists, current and former students, and speakers.
After the speaker panel, students and adults could choose from a variety of virtual service projects, workshops, or discussions. Hudson chose a virtual service project where he read a children’s book to kids at the hospital. He used the technology app, Photo Booth, to record himself reading a book called Turkey Trouble out loud. Since it was a recording, many different children could hear him read aloud at any time. He shared, “I felt helpful and proud to help the children in the hospital. The day of service was a great day, and I made a difference.”
D-E Lower School students didn’t stop learning about service and activists after the virtual gathering, and many continued the learning in their classrooms in various ways. In third grade, students are learning about this topic through the yearly project, Third Graders Making a Difference, where they are focusing on changemakers. Amelie, a third-grade student in Ms. Sussmann’s class shared that they’ve been getting inspired by different types of people that have made a change. In the past two weeks, she has engaged in independent projects where she has studied Greta Thurnburg, Kamala Harris, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, and Martin Luther King Jr., among others. For each influential person, Amelie has created a different representation of their impact in the world. For example, she shares that for Martin Luther King Jr., she will be making an inspiring letter that explains what he’s done and congratulates him for what he did. Her favorite part about the project is that, “you get to learn about a changemaker and also make something really cool. Also, you are inspired by people to make a difference too.”